Agency and Empowerment in consumption in relation to a patriarchal bargain: the case of Nigerian immigrant women in the UK

Purpose This research aims to explore how female immigrants use consumption to challenge and support their husband's position within the context of their patriarchal bargain. Design/methodology/approach The sample group (n = 20) consisted of ten first-generation Nigerian immigrant married couples living in Britain, who were interviewed together, with the married female then re-interviewed separately. Findings This paper demonstrates how women transition from being a wife in a consanguine family in Nigeria, which they describe as patriarchal, to becoming one within a nuclear family in the UK, a society to which they attribute gender equality. Nigerian immigrant women alter their ways of thinking and consuming, with implications to their agency and empowerment. In particular, consumption choices demonstrated the limits of these women’s willingness to challenge their patriarchal bargain and instead often colluded with their husbands to maintain his position as the head of the family. Practical implications Immigrant women should not be seen as passive receptors of their male partner’s wishes or demands, but instead active participators in purchasing and consumption decisions. Although marketing encourages direct targeting of customers, this approach raises a number of ethical issues for female African immigrants. Originality/value Previous research on the consumption behaviour of immigrants is limited in scope and tends to focus on male immigrants, with female immigrants either invisible or stereotyped. Compounding this problem are disciplinary, geographical and linguistic barriers that hinder social scientists' research into the consumption of female migration. This paper works to address these omissions

Memories of pre- and post-migration consumption: better times or embodiments of a defensive mental state?

Previous migration studies tend to draw an implicit line between the place and time of migration (past) and the current place and time (present). Yet this approach fails to address how pre-migration memories emerge and appear in migrants’ daily lives. In particular, research has not addressed: (i) how migrants’ present lives evoke memories of their past, or how consumption may reproduce pre-migration routines and knowledge, and (ii) how consumption is used in recalling past memories into the present, even if this leads to conflict between what is remembered and what is experienced. We explore these questions through migrants’ pre- and post-migration memories, and how they manifest through consumption. In doing so we address research calls to understand how people encode and retrieve memories (Hastie and Dawes 2001) and identity-based consumer memories (Mercurio and Forehand 2011)

Investigating the extent to which British Indians draw upon Asian Indian and British Caucasian cultural values in brown good purchase

This dissertation aims to investigate the extent to which British Indians draw upon Asian Indian and British Caucasian cultural values in the purchase of a brown good. Drawing upon previously published research and primary data (including a field trip to India, preliminary investigative interviews, two pilot studies and the main survey questionnaire) eleven hypotheses are developed, simultaneously tested and results discussed. A sample size of 425 usable responses, made it possible to use Factor analysis, Pearson's correlation coefficient and Multinomial logistical regression (MLM). MLM's use within cross-cultural research represents an important methodological contribution to this area, as it appears not to have been used before. The eleven hypotheses in this thesis represent the culmination of an extensive literature review process and understanding of cross-cultural methodological issues. The hypotheses measure three research themes: acculturation, consumer behaviour and culture. At the causality level, this research study supports previous research that indicates culture as influencing consumer behaviour. More importantly, British Indians consumer behaviour and cultural values are similar, but in differing aspects, to both Asian Indians and British Caucasians. This finding makes a major contribution to our understanding of British Indians and culture's affect on consumer behaviour. Further research into British Indians is encouraged using participants from different socio-economic groups and geographical locations. Implications of the literature and the research's findings are used to increase awareness of multi-culturalism from both an academic and commercial perspective. Cross-cultural methodological limitations are provided, indicating epistemological issues that require further discussion if this research field is to advance

Conform or resist? Immigrant females and consumer empowerment

This research explores how purchasing choices are renegotiated by immigrant women as they transition in their cultural roles from a wife within a patriarchal consanguine family to a nuclear family based on equality. In particular, by focusing on the immigrant wife we will illustrate how various acts of consumption offer these women not only a means to resist their husband’s patriarchy but also assert their power within family purchases

Negotiating liminality following life transitions: Reflexive bricolage and liminal hotspots

Purpose This paper aims to investigate how consumption linked with life transitions can differ in its potential to bring about ongoing liminality. By examining how consumers can draw on overlapping systems of resources, different ways in which consumers negotiate ongoing liminality following the transition to motherhood are identified. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted an interpretive, exploratory study using in-depth phenomenological interviews with 23 South Asian mothers living in the UK. The sample consisted of mothers at different stages of motherhood. Findings Following life transitions, consumers may encounter liminal hotspots at the intersection of overlapping systems of resources. The findings examine two liminal hotspots with differing potential to produce ongoing liminality. The study shows how consumers navigate these liminal hotspots in different ways, by accepting, rejecting and amalgamating the resources at hand. Research limitations/implications The research sample could have been more diverse; future research could examine liminal hotspots relating to different minority groups and life transitions. Practical implications Marketers need to examine the different ways in which consumers draw on different systems of resources following life transitions. The paper includes implications for how marketers segment, target and market to ethnic minority consumers. Originality/value Due to increasingly fluid social conditions, there are likely to be growing numbers of consumers who experience ongoing liminality following life transitions. A preliminary framework is presented outlining different ways that consumers negotiate ongoing liminality by drawing on overlapping systems of resources, broadening the understanding of the role that marketplace resources play beyond life transitions. </jats:sec

Where's the harm? A social marketing approach to reframing 'problem' drinking cultures

Alcohol consumption is often linked to a broad range of social and health problems, yet alcohol also plays a fundamental role in social bonding between people. This paper considers the potential of social marketing to contribute to alcohol consumption reduction and reframe social norms that encourage 'problem' drinking. Based on qualitative research with a variety of Scottish drinkers, the paper emphasises how and why a better understanding of the culturally bound meanings of alcohol (e.g. social identity, self-concept) are of crucial importance to inform any social marketing approach to reframing excessive drinking

Becoming Iconic: David Bowie From Man to Icon

Human brands can be understood as both celebrities and icons. However, these perspectives have been assumed to be different even when applied to the same person. Applying structuration theory we develop a transformation approach of musician to celebrity to icon, where private, public meanings and wider cultural concerns converge

Service failure and recovery strategies in the Balkans: an exploratory study

Purpose: Despite scholarly effort to understand customers’ recovery evaluation, little progress is evident in deciphering how customers develop online failure/recovery perception. This paper addresses this issue. Design/methodology/approach: Social constructivism was the epistemic choice for this study. This approach is holistic and offers a comprehensive understanding of each side of the phenomena. This provided social scientific descriptions of people and their cultural bases and built on, and articulated what was implicit in interpretations of their views. Findings: Online banking customer groups were identified as: exigent customers, solutionist customers and impulsive customers. Customers’ position in each group determined failure perception, recovery expectation and evaluation, and post-recovery behaviour. Comparisons were observed and discussed in relation to Albania and Kosovo. It was suggested that banks should expand their presence in social media platforms and offer a means to manage online customer communication and spread of online WOM. Research limitations/implications: For exigent customers, the failure/recovery responsibility is embedded within the provider. This explains their high sensitivity and criteria to define a failure. Practical implications: Online banking customers’ request of a satisfactory recovery experience included: customer notifications, customer behaviour, customer determination, and the mediator of request. Providers should examine customer failure/recovery experiences in cooperation with other banks which should lead to a higher order understanding of customer withdrawal and disengagement activities. Originality/value: This is the first empirical study on online service failure and recovery strategy to provide information on customers’ unique preferences and expectations in the recovery process. Online customers are organised into a threefold customer typology, and explanation for the providers’ role in the online customer failure-recovery perception construct is presented

Examining ‘good’ mothering and value transmission: how British-born South Asian mothers seek generational change

Sociological literature has begun to examine how mothers occupying non-normative positions negotiate the transmission of cultural capital and habitus, and how the norms of good mothering shape this process. However, less is known about second-generation mothers’ experiences, despite evidence of changing gender relations within ethnic minority communities. Drawing on interviews with British-born South-Asian mothers who held upwardly mobile aspirations, we highlight several forms of departure from intensive, middle-class mothering. Informants face additional responsibilities for transmitting cultural and religious capital, pursuing the ideal of the child as ‘skilled cultural navigator’, enabling their children to negotiate hybridised identities. They reinterpret the norms of intensive mothering, pushing against key tropes including expert-dependence, self-sacrifice, and overprotection. These findings extend knowledge of the mother’s role in creating a reflexive habitus, by showing how second-generation mothers socialise their children with reflexively chosen cultural and religious practices, based on egalitarian gender norms